Well, I didn´t hope for much progress this month and it turns out I was right. I did, however, have one thing on my list, and I accomplished it: Write in the blog every day for the month of June. Did you notice how I did that? Huh? I had tried it before and failed. However, this time it seemed effortless, mostly because I didn't put any pressure on myself. If I didn't feel chatty, I put up a photo I liked. And in the process, I connected with it again. I've really enjoyed writing/playing with it again.

When I started blogging in 2004, it was so different – I was different, mainly, but also the blogging world felt different. There was no Facebook and no Twitter. I guess there was MySpace, but I never fully got on board with that. It felt like there was real conversation. Flirtation. Exuberance. And creative writing. Dooce was pregnant with her first baby. It felt close.

And then it was.. different. People started getting FAMOUS for blogging. It felt like a path to.. something. I don't even know! As my hits grew, I outgrew my blog and maybe in hopes of becoming, at least, infamous, I upgraded to Typepad. And Typepad has been great the past 4+ years, but… well, let's face it. Not many people are getting famous because of blogs anymore, and I'm certainly not going to be one of them. And any momentum I had at any time was derailed by how the web changed with the advent of Facebook in late 2006.

In the end, I've always just done this for me anyway, and whomever felt like checking in and sharing a bit was more than welcome. I've never had much of a direction with it. I just flowed.

Since the blog is now quieter, more introspective, and, frankly, less read, I do not think it continues to make sense to pay for the Typepad service, no matter how user-friendly it is. And while my old blog still exists in what seems to be an unimportable state, this one is easily exported and imported into a new free platform.

I've enjoyed writing every day and would like to keep it up. However, I'll be taking a few days off to change everything over. If you come here via my URL ashbloemstraat.com, you won't notice anything except a bit of a new look. If, however, you come via ashbloem.typepad.com/ashbloemstraat, you will will need to use the URL – but there don't seem to be that many of you.

So, with that said: BRB.